Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: "A Very Turtle Christmas!!"

Author: Marsha Walters

Disclaimers: I do not own any of the original TMNT characters. Lori and Hari belong to my friend, ChibiJaime.

Claimers: I do own this story, myself, Shauna and Ukiyo(Means: 'Life' in Japanese)

A/N: I told ya I'd have another chapter coming up shortly! Heh...Oh, and KikoKamia, you're absolutely right. Marsha and Raph are Shauna's parents. I'll have a picture of Shauna up soon on I'll place a link to it on the next chapter, okay?

Chapter 7

Marsha stared at the wall in front of her, as if in a daze. Leo chuckled softly. "Marsha, hey, you okay?" he asked, taking her hand in his.

"Leo...did we just..." her voice trailed off and she looked at him.

"Yes."

She lowered her eyes. "Raphael is going to hate us, you do know that, right?" she asked, quietly.

"Yeah, I know," Leo let out a sigh, then glanced at Marsha. "Do you regret it?"

"No...do you?"

"No."

Leo smiled at her; she smiled back.

April glanced up from her cleaning when Raphael stepped out of the spare bedroom. "You okay, Raph? How's Shauna?" she asked gently.

"She's fine...April...Leo stole my mate from me...I just know it. I hate him!" he fumed.

"Raph, don't say that about your own brother. How do you know he...wait a minute...are you saying that Leonardo and Marsha...mated?" She breathed slightly.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm sayin'. I just can't stand him at times. Always the perfect son. Always the perfect student; the perfect warrior. Everyone loves 'Perfect Leo', even Marsha loves him. Probably even more than she loves me," he lowered his eyes and sighed heavily.

"Raph...please, don't do this to yourself."

"Gee, Raph, you look terrible. What happened?" Casey's voice startled them as he entered the living room and plopped himself down on the sofa.

"I don't wanna talk about it..." he muttered and went back to his room.

April rolled her eyes at Casey. "Great timing, as usual."

"What? I was just curious," he shrugged and turned on the television.

"He's upset about Leo, if you really must know."

Casey raised his eyebrows a bit. "Sibling rivalry, again?" April just nodded.

"So...what's Shauna up to? I haven't seen her in quite a while."

Casey shrugged again. "I dunno...the last time I saw her, she was in her room, still wearing that yukata."

April grew worried. Shauna usually came out to join April for morning tea, but this morning...She shook her head. "I'm going to go check up on her, Casey." She announced.

He just nodded and returned his gaze to the TV. "Get off your lazy butt and come with me!"

Casey let out an annoyed groan and followed April. "Shauna? Shauna, sweetie, are you okay?" April asked, gently knocking on her bedroom door.

When she didn't respond, April pushed open the door. "Oh, my--!!" She covered her mouth. Shauna's room was a mess. Her bed sheets were lying on the floor in a heap, clothes were lying in various places about the room, and there were sword marks along the walls. Casey's eyes scanned the scrawled sword marks.

"Some sort of message..." he muttered. April stared at him. He squinted his eyes and read what he saw to April. "'We have Shauna. If you ever want to see her alive again, you will bring her mother to us...or else'..." He shrugged. "Oh well...not my problem."

"Casey!! She's only seven years old!"

"So? She's the daughter of a psychic and a ninja, she can take care of herself, I did." He folded his arms.

"Stubborn...pig-headed buffoon..." April muttered, looking away from him.

Beeeeepppppp!!! Leo's eyes snapped open when he heard his Shell-Cell go off. "April? What's wrong?"

"Leo...wait...is Marsha there with you?"

Marsha leaned closer to Leo and stared at the Shell-Cell screen. "Everything okay, April? How's Shauna?"

April paused for a few minutes; she appeared worried. "I...There's something you two should see." April's face disappeared and they saw the messed up room...then the message on the wall.

Marsha's eyes widened. "H-has Raphael seen this yet?"

"No...he's locked himself up in his room."

"Whatever you do, don't let him walk into Shauna's room, okay, April?" Leo requested.

She nodded. Leo closed his Shell-Cell and glanced up at Marsha who looked torn. "Marsha?"

Her eyes filled with tears. "I don't know what to do, Leo...I know they'll kill her if I don't obey them...or worse, they'll turn her against us with that damned mind-control device Stockman built."

Leo wrapped his arms around her, comfortingly. Marsha rested her head against his plastron. What am I supposed to do?

To be continued...Muwahahahahaha!